BitMine Stock Falls 15.1% After-Hours As Peter Thiel-Backed Company Files Shelf Offering, Might Consider Ethereum Purchase With Proceeds

Shares of Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. BMNR plummeted in Monday's after-market trading after the company filed for a shelf offering to register securities for sale by selling stockholders

What happened: BMNR fell 15.1% after-hours after the Ethereum ETH/USD-focused company submitted a Form S-3ASR with the SEC.

"The selling stockholders may from time to time sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of any or all of the securities in a number of different ways and at varying price," the registration statement read.

The company clarified that the securities are being offered for resale by the selling stockholders, not directly by BitMine. While it won’t receive proceeds from the sale of common stock, it stands to gain about $25.18 million if equity warrants are exercised in full, which might be used to purchase Ethereum ETH/USD and for other general corporate purposes.

Typically, such filings allow issuers to offer and sell securities on a delayed or continuous basis, providing flexibility and efficiency in accessing capital markets.

However, because they increase the total number of shares in the market, shareholders regard it as dilutive to their existing value, leading to a fall in stock price.

Why It Matters: BitMine, a small-cap Bitcoin BTC/USD mining firm, pivoted to an Ethereum treasury strategy, adopting ETH as its primary reserve asset. The company is pursuing its goal to acquire 5% of the circulating ETH supply

Seasoned investors like Cathie Wood and Peter Thiel are betting on BitMine’s ETH play. Through his Founders Fund, Thiel has acquired a 9% stake in the company. At the same time, ARK Invest—led by Wood—acquired a 1.5% position.

Notably, Ark Invest purchased 573,853 shares of BitMine on Monday. The transaction was valued at nearly $20.1 million.

Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $3,766.85, down 2.06% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

BitMine shares closed 11.8% lower at 35.11 on Wednesday. Year-to-date, the stock has soared over 350%.

As of this writing, the stock demonstrated a very high Momentum score. Visit Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings to see how Strategy Inc. MSTR, the pioneer of cryptocurrency treasury play, stacks up.